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Better Dampening on OEM.

65K views 208 replies 60 participants last post by  lflouie 
#1 ·
Can a variable voltage oscillator of some sorts be used to adjust the dampers individually on the FoRS? Who wants to develop in?

Aaron
 
#2 ·
Hello everyone. My name is Harris and I am with DSC Sport. For those not yet familiar with DSC Sport, the company is Dynamic Suspension Control. We make a computer that is a direct pug in for the magnetic dampers and makes the suspension active rather than passive. This has been a huge upgrade in ride quality, but also performance with cars like the C7 Corvette with magnetic dampers and also the GT350! I am currently shopping around for a Focus RS in blue with the RS2 package and hope to pick one up by the end of the week or Monday to start playing with it!! We have been working extremely hard on the GT350 controller and have made the world of difference with that car and ready to start on the Focus RS. Once I get my car, I will be extremely active on here hoping to mod the car eventually and see what most of you are doing with your cars. I plan to do a few track days a year with the car but also drive the car to work everyday. From there, with our DSC Sport mapping, we can trade maps and see what everyone likes! I look forward to being involved with the Focus RS community!

**Sorry I am new to the forum and cannot post links yet, but will add our company DSC Sport to my signature so our link comes up on my posts.
 
#8 ·
I can tell you moving to 18's 235/40 Cup2's and eibach springs along with a rear Steeda swaybar have solved my major issues with the factory setup and I'm fairly happy with the ride now. I hope we see a Ohlin or Bilstein kit later in the year and I will probably jump on that if they offer camber plates.
 
#9 ·
Still doing more research on the dampers as I do not have the car yet. I am actually picking up my Focus RS tonight! There is a suspension controller for this car and we do know where it is located. I will start a new thread and post plenty of pictures and videos once I dig into it a bit and hope to start very soon! The car does adapt as it has multiple ranges for the valving in the shock, just like the GT350 commands. We will definitely be making a controller and active dampers for this car, but the controller will come first. Just like all of the cars we have done the controller for, expect improved ride quality and extremely improved handling!

I ended up getting a pretty good deal on a Focus RS without the RS2 package and will put some miles on it tonight and also some highway driving on my commute to work tomorrow and start to feel out the ride quality. This is a project we expect to jump into right away, so stay tuned!!
 
#16 ·
There is a controller, but it only sends high/or low current to a 2-position solenoid on each damper. You get valving "soft" or "track" depending on the bleed profile -- there is no inbetween. It's a mechanical change, so it happens pretty slowly (on the order of seconds). There isn't going to be a away to make it "adapt". Good replacement shocks would be fantastic -- although few people are willing to pay for quality dampers.


donour

FYI: this info is all explained very clearly in the factory service manual
 
#12 ·
just put it in track and disable the sport suspension and your set
 
#15 ·
I just picked up my 2017 Focus RS last night! I must say it does ride stiff and track mode is not very usable. We will be working on a solution for the OEM dampers with our suspension controller and then we will be developing a set of active dampers with Tractive. With the active dampers, we will have the ability to use less spring and more of the shock, so there will be no compromise and ride nicer than stock! Can't wait to start working on this car and do a few track days with it!
 
#17 ·
That's interesting.. as I've read elsewhere that the factory system was a variable orifice controlled by PWM. I'll have to look and see where I saw it, but I'm pretty sure it was some Ford technical document. Maybe it was describing a different system or something, but it went into quite a bit of detail.
 
#18 ·
First post, 3rd Focus. Hi gents! Just to settle the debate... some sauce for all this speculation: (can't post urls due to post count - google "Tenneco Introduces New Adaptive Damping Technology on the Ford").

Absolutely a 2-mode damper. That is, unless Tenneco buries a truly active, super-quick active valve in their econo-damper and bins/brands as a dual-mode to segment their market... Post #9 - c'mon now!
 
#26 ·
Doing some more sourcing for fun. So there's this from Ford's "Technical Service Training, New Model Supplement (RS), page 21:

Inside the shock absorber is an electromagnetic, infinitely variable bypass valve. Control is performed
via the magnitude of the control current to the shock absorber bypass valve as supplied by the shock absorber control module.
So here, dual mode is achieved by sending one of two prescribed voltages. Or one, and none at all. The voltage activate's the orifice to close/constrict to a calibrated diameter. This could still mean that an active controller could change the orifice size. So, how quickly can it react?

Then, the product lit for the damper, as advertised by the designer/manufacturer Tenneco (or Monroe, not sure who owns who).

Tenneco Introduces New Adaptive Damping Technology On The Ford Focus RS High Performance Road Car | Tenneco Inc.

http://www.tenneco.com/assets/1/7/5732-Monroe_Intelligent_Susp._Brochure-3.17.16.pdf

Select your preferred ride experience – go from comfort to a more sporty ride and back with the touch of a button. The four electronically controlled dampers connect to a simple control unit to switch the internal on/off valve in each damper to toggle between the soft and firm valve. This is an ideal solution for sporty compact cars providing a default comfortable ride setting for daily traffic and a track-like performance setting on demand.
The non-activated (off) valve provides the sport setting stiffness. This means any active controller won't be able to make the damper any softer than the default setting - it would only be able to modulate between our default sport stiffness (pretty stiff) to rock hard. Interesting stuff. Looking forward to seeing what 3rd parties come up with in the magnetic and active shock market.
 
#27 ·
After putting a few more miles on my car we have been doing more work to develop the controller. I did mention the Mustang before purchasing my car, but these are electronic valved. Below is a photo of the controller for our dampers. It is actually fairly easy to get to and only held on my double sided tape from the factory. It is in the left rear by the fuses. We took the box out, worked with a Ford manual that our engineer has on the wiring and now working on a pin out for our module. I will keep everyone posted as we make a controller for the car and then get to work on programming.

The way the electronic valve works is off of amperage. The higher the milliamps, the softer the shock gets. The lower the milliamps, the stiffer it gets. We have developed this controller for the Porsche and GTR cars that are all electronic and have completely transformed the way the car rides and handles. We plan to do the same with the Focus RS. I will keep everyone updated as we develop more!

Electronics Technology Electronic device Wire Electronic component
 
#42 ·
The way the electronic valve works is off of amperage. The higher the milliamps, the softer the shock gets. The lower the milliamps, the stiffer it gets.
Have you unplugged one and measured yet? Thats backwards and not really how solenoid drivers work. Zero current provides the softer of the two damper settings. a 50% PWM signal (peaked at 1.6A then held at 0.6A) moves the solenoid to the second location. It's unclear what 100% duty cycle would do, if anything. I think nobody in the aftermarket has tried driving it at 25%.

Could you put a damper on a dyno and do a sweep for us?

donour
 
#54 ·
I have not taken a shock off of my RS yet, but I am correct saying that with an electronic valve in the damper, the higher the mA (1500 for example) the softer the ride and the lower the mA (500 for example), the stiffer the ride. With companies such as Bilstein and Tractive who make electronic valves for shock absorbers, they will tell you the same thing. I do not have a dyno chart, or anything from the RS but I have included a link below on how our software works and all of the parameters we are able to control with our DSC Sport module. We also have a tutorial video on YouTube on using our software, but this guide in the link below shows every table and breaks down what we are changing in more detail.

I hope to get the RS dampers on the dyno soon. Once we do, I will show our findings. We are still working on the controller and making a connector so that we can start getting to work on controlling the dampers.

DSC Sport Software User Guide
 
#57 ·
I have not taken a shock off of my RS yet, but I am correct saying that with an electronic valve in the damper, the higher the mA (1500 for example) the softer the ride and the lower the mA (500 for example), the stiffer the ride.
Please don't assert that. According to my multimeter, that's not true. To be clear, the valve is not electronic. The valve is mechanically controlled by an electrically driven solenoid. The solenoid position is dependent on duty cycle.

Are we in fundamental disagreement on this?

Donour
 
#30 ·
Intrigued. Continue on.... :D
 
#34 ·
Even the info seems to contradict itself.

Tenneco calls it dual mode, and in the PDF brochure it shows up as on/off.

The RS service manual says infinitely variable.

Much confusion abound, but plenty of hope that its both variable, and responsive enough to use with the DSC system.

Controlling anti-dive and being able to dial anti-squat in for launch control would be king. As well as reducing roll via damping control.
 
#38 ·
This is very interesting. I would pay for an analog setting for the dampers.

I would just wonder two things.

1) Can we dial it softer than Stock?
and also
2) Can we dial it harder than stock on "sport" mode?

At first I'm assuming you will have X number of positions (like let's say 10) being 1 stock soft and 10 stock hard. ...
 
#39 ·
As I've said before I think 10% softer on each would be great. I don't track the car and may never but I'd still like to feel like I'm getting use out of everything I've paid for. Normal for family road trips and sport for fun driving. Right now sport is too stiff for some of these horrid NE roads.
 
#41 ·
A dramatic reduction in damping rates will negatively affect handling (cornering) and braking unless it is offset with other changes, like swaybar changes.....it's an interdependent system.

As much as I like the overall handling of the car, the rebound damping seems to me to be the biggest issue....especially the rear rebound damping.

The other contributing issue is that Michelin had to increase the tire pressures bc of the tire size restrictions that Ford gave them. Going to an 18 wheel/tire and adding at least a 1/2" to the wheel and tire width would allow for lower tire pressures....and improve the ride wo degrading handling....IMO.
 
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